Scary Halloween Candy-Tampering Tales

Every year on Halloween, parents diligently inspect their children's bags of trick-or-treat candy, searching each piece for open wrappers or any other sign of possible tampering. Poisoned Pixy Stix, chocolates with needles inside, and apples laced with razor blades are among the legendary hidden surprises of Halloweens past. But the number of documented cases of Halloween treat tampering throughout history are few and far between; chances are, most parents will find nothing but an overwhelming amount of sugar — scary in its own way — in their kids' loot. So where do these scary trick-or-treat stories come from? Read on to learn which Halloween candy tampering tales are true and which are urban legends.

'The Man Who Killed Halloween'

One of the first documented cases of Halloween candy tampering took place in 1974 when a Texas man poisoned his own son after a night of trick-or-treating — so he could collect $20,000 in insurance money. Ronald Clark O'Bryan, who later came to be known as the Man Who Killed Halloween and the Candy Man, gave 8-year-old Timothy O'Bryan Pixy Stix laced with cyanide. The boy died on Oct. 31, 1974, after eating the candy, and within days, his father was accused of staging the crime as part of a life insurance scheme. O'Bryan had also given out the poisoned sweets to other children, including his 5-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, but officers retrieved the remaining tampered candy before the other kids ingested it. He was later convicted and executed by lethal injection in 1984.

Long Island Teens Tricked With Arsenic-Laced Treats

The first documented case of Halloween candy tampering by a stranger was reported in 1964 in a Long Island town called Greenlawn. Teenager Elise Gray had been out trick-or-treating with her sister Irene and a school friend when they arrived at the home of housewife Helen Pfeil, according to the New York Post. A mother of teens herself, Pfeil joked with the girls that they were too old for trick-or-treating before dropping what appeared to be sugary treats in each of their bags.

When the girls returned home, their mother dutifully checked their booty to find every parent's worst nightmare — arsenic pellets had been mixed in with the candy, wrapped in napkins. Though the poison never touched the teens' mouths, cops set out on a manhunt to find the culprit and arrested Pfeil that night. The housewife said she had given the poison to the teens as "a joke" because they were too old to trick or treat. She was charged with two counts of child endangerment and faced two years in prison. She pleaded guilty in the middle of her trial, and a judge suspended her sentence in 1965. As for Gray, she never wore a Halloween costume again. "That was the end of Halloween for me," she told the Post in 2011.

Needles in Snickers Bars

The next Halloween candy tampering case on record didn't occur until the year 2000. That Halloween, James Joseph Smith of Minneapolis stuck needles in Snickers bars and passed them out to trick-or-treaters. One unlucky teenage boy was pricked with the needle when he bit into a candy bar, but neither he nor any of the other children who got the needle-pierced Snickers bars was seriously harmed. Smith was charged with one count of adulterating a substance with intent to cause death, harm, or illness.

A Razor Blade in Halloween Treats

Have you ever told your children never to accept an apple from a stranger for fear of a razor blade hidden inside? Though this is a myth largely perpetuated by worried parents and inaccurate media reports — there has never been a documented case of tampered fruit given out on Halloween — a Santa Fe, N.M., teen was horrified to find a blade in a Reese's peanut butter cup in 2011. "It's probably one of the scariest things that's happened to me," John Martinez, 15 at the time, told local ABC News affiliate KDAT. "I could've eaten it and cut the top of my mouth open. I think that's really messed up to do that to somebody." Police said the suspect pool was very large because of the number of homes the child had visited, and the culprit was never found.

Tips for Halloween Safety

Though the number of Halloween candy tampering cases is very small, officials say parents should still take precautions. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration Halloween safety guidelines instruct parents to tell children not to accept or eat anything that isn't commercially wrapped, and not to eat any candy until a parent has a chance to look it over at home. Parents should also "inspect commercially wrapped treats for signs of tampering, such as an unusual appearance or discoloration, tiny pinholes, or tears in wrappers.

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